TRANSFORMING NARRATIVES - A CHANGE EVENT IN CONSTRUCTIVIST FAMILY-THERAPY

One important clinical task in family therapy involves transforming th e client's construction of the presenting problem from art individual, intrapersonal view to an interpersonal, relational, or systemic one ( Sluzki, 1992). To study the transformation process in initial sessions , we sampled 8 families in which the referring parent requested help f or a child's problem. The 8 therapists, trained and experienced in Slu zki's (1992) narrative approach, attempted to facilitate a transformat ion in the parents' initial construction of the problem. In 4 sessions , the transformation was independently judged to be successful by the therapist and observers, while in 4 other sessions the transformation, was judged to be unsuccessful. Videotapes of the 8 interviews were an alyzed qualitatively, and the parents' verbatim descriptions of the pr oblem were coded using the Cognitive Constructions Coding System (Frie dlander, 1995). We compared the successful and the unsuccessful sessio ns and developed a conceptual model of the successful transformation p rocess that included client performances as well as therapist operatio ns (Greenberg, 1986). While many elements in the model were consistent with Sluzki's (1992) ''blueprint'' transformation, several new elemen ts were added. Practical implications are described, along with limita tions and recommendations for future research.